After nearly four decades at the center of chareidi political life in Israel, MK Moshe Rafael Gafni is concluding his lengthy tenure in the Knesset, closing a remarkable chapter that took him from a young communal activist in the southern development town of Ofakim to one of the most powerful and influential chareidi lawmakers in the country.

Throughout the corridors of the Knesset in Givat Ram, governments have risen and fallen, ministers have come and gone, and Israel’s political landscape has repeatedly been transformed. Yet for close to 40 years, Gafni remained a remarkably constant presence. He never held the title of government minister, never commanded an army and never led a secular political party, but the practical influence he accumulated at some of the most important intersections of Israeli public life established him as one of the country’s most seasoned and respected parliamentarians.

Gafni’s personal story became intertwined with the modern history of the chareidi community in Israel. It began in the country’s south, continued through the dramatic night when he was summoned to the home of Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, and eventually brought him to the coveted chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee, the position through which he would leave an enduring imprint on Israel’s economic and political system.

Moshe Gafni was born in the early summer of 5712 in Tel Aviv to his parents, Eliyahu and Chava Bracha, Polish Holocaust survivors who were affiliated with Ger.

He received his early education at the Yesodei HaTorah Talmud Torah before continuing his Torah development in two of the most prominent Lithuanian yeshivos in Israel, Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and Grodno Yeshiva in Ashdod. Under the Toraso umnaso arrangement, he deferred military service and became firmly rooted in the Lithuanian yeshiva world.

Following his marriage to his wife, Chana, in 5733, Gafni moved to Ofakim in the western Negev. The move was part of a broader initiative by the Lithuanian Torah leadership to strengthen communities in Israel’s outlying areas by establishing thriving Torah centers there.

In Ofakim, Gafni quickly became a central figure in the local community. He headed the Zichron Eliyahu kollel and eventually entered municipal politics as a member of the Ofakim City Council.

Long before he entered the Knesset, Ofakim provided Gafni with his first real education in politics and public service.

Recalling those years, Gafni once described the intensive grassroots work that characterized his approach: “לא היה בית שאני ואשתי לא היינו בו” — “There was not a home that my wife and I had not been in.”

Rather than limiting himself to matters directly affecting religious institutions and Torah education, Gafni became deeply involved in the everyday difficulties facing residents of the development town. He dealt with welfare issues, helped struggling families and confronted the often-unyielding bureaucracy of municipal and national government agencies.

Thus, Gafni did not arrive at the Finance Committee years later as a detached technocrat. His political education had been acquired on the ground, dealing directly with ordinary citizens and the hardships of families living on Israel’s socioeconomic periphery. That experience would later shape the way he approached the national budget and social policy, often extending his involvement well beyond matters affecting the chareidi community alone.

His years in Ofakim also gave him practical experience in public administration, bridging social divides and navigating government ministries and bureaucracies. At the same time, his writing for the Yated Ne’eman newspaper helped develop the sharp public style for which he would later become known.

The Historic Split: The Night That Changed Chareidi Politics

The year 5749 marked a watershed in chareidi politics. Long-simmering tensions between the chassidic wing of Agudas Yisrael, led largely by Ger, and the Lithuanian Torah community reached a breaking point. Many in the Lithuanian community believed they were underrepresented and increasingly marginalized, circumstances that had already contributed to the establishment of Yated Ne’eman and the Shearis Yisrael kashrus organization.

Ahead of elections for Israel’s 12th Knesset, Rav Shach, the Ponovezh Rosh Yeshiva, made the historic decision to break with Agudas Yisrael and establish an independent political party, Degel HaTorah.

Rav Shach sought young, energetic individuals to build the new movement. Late one night, Gafni was summoned to Rav Shach’s home and instructed to run for the Knesset. Rav Shach gave him one succinct directive that Gafni would carry with him throughout his political career: “תשמור על החוק” — “Observe the law.”

Running under the eitz ballot symbol, the fledgling Degel HaTorah stunned Israel’s political establishment by winning 34,279 votes and securing two Knesset seats. Gafni entered the Israeli legislature for the first time.

Upon joining the 12th Knesset in 1988, Gafni began developing a distinctly different model of political power. Instead of pursuing a ministerial portfolio, he concentrated on accumulating influence within the Knesset itself, particularly through its committees. He served on bodies including the Knesset Committee and the Labor and Welfare Committee, laying the foundations for the parliamentary power he would later wield.

Inside the Movement: The Rotation Years and Degel HaTorah Leadership

During the 13th and 14th Knessets, after Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisrael joined together under the United Torah Judaism banner, Gafni had to contend with carefully negotiated rotation agreements between the factions. The delicate balance between the two components of UTJ meant that he moved in and out of the Knesset at different points.

Those years outside the Knesset, however, became another important stage in his development as a public figure. Moving between parliamentary and extra-parliamentary activity gave him an intimate understanding of both the political system and the communal infrastructure behind it.

Recognizing his organizational and administrative abilities, Rav Shach entrusted Gafni with another major responsibility, appointing him secretary-general of Degel HaTorah. Gafni was no longer merely an elected official working in the Knesset chamber; he was responsible for operating the machinery of the young political movement itself.

He helped build the party apparatus, developed relationships with mayors and municipal officials, local askanim, community administrators and roshei yeshiva throughout the country, and managed the movement’s ongoing activities in accordance with the direction of the Gedolei Torah.

That period became crucial to understanding Gafni’s later effectiveness on the national stage. He knew the political machinery from the inside, understood the intricacies of local government and maintained direct relationships with communities on the ground. The combination ultimately made him a particularly skilled parliamentary operator capable of navigating virtually every major decision-making center.

A Shaliach, Not a Minister

One of the defining principles of Gafni’s political career was rooted in Rav Shach’s position regarding participation in an Israeli government.

Under the principle of collective ministerial responsibility established in Israel’s Basic Law: The Government, ministers share responsibility for the actions of the government as a whole. From the Lithuanian chareidi perspective articulated by Rav Shach, this created serious concerns regarding responsibility for public chillul Shabbos, consequential security decisions and government spending contrary to Torah values.

Rav Shach therefore instructed Degel HaTorah representatives not to serve as ministers in Israeli governments.

Gafni adhered to that position throughout his career. Even as representatives of other chareidi factions eventually accepted ministerial posts, and despite offers of senior portfolios including the Housing Ministry, Gafni refused to become a minister.

The sole exception to his general avoidance of executive government office came between 1990 and 1992, when he served as deputy religious affairs minister in Yitzchak Shamir’s government. The deputy-minister position gave him executive authority without making him a full member of the government carrying collective ministerial responsibility.

Rise to the Center of Parliamentary Power

Another important milestone came during the 15th Knesset, when Gafni was appointed chairman of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee.

The committee dealt with some of the most complicated issues facing the country, including local authorities, planning and construction, municipal government, public administration and environmental matters. Gafni’s earlier years on the Ofakim City Council gave him firsthand familiarity with many of the issues now reaching his committee on the national level.

A major turning point came in January 2009 with the passing of MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz z”l, Gafni’s longtime political partner and a leading figure in Degel HaTorah.

Following Ravitz’s passing, Gafni became chairman of Degel HaTorah, placing him at the forefront of the Lithuanian chareidi community’s political representation while remaining completely subordinate to the direction of its roshei yeshiva and Gedolei Torah.

From there, Gafni eventually reached what would become his most important center of parliamentary influence: the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee.

Across several terms totaling more than a decade — approximately 13 years during the 18th, 20th, 23rd and 25th Knessets — Gafni transformed the Finance Committee chairmanship into an extraordinary center of political influence. From that position, he repeatedly confronted and negotiated with Finance Ministry officials while directing resources toward preserving the Torah world and advancing social policies benefiting Israel’s periphery and economically vulnerable populations.

Political Moderation and Loyalty to the Right-Wing Bloc

Gafni’s political worldview has long contained an unusual combination. On diplomatic and security matters, he has described himself as a faithful student of Rav Shach, rejecting messianic approaches to territorial issues and supporting diplomatic flexibility when necessary for pikuach nefesh. Gafni has even said in the past that his diplomatic positions were relatively close to those of the political left.

At the same time, his political alliances remained firmly with the right-wing bloc led by Binyamin Netanyahu. The traditionalist camp was viewed as a more natural partner for the chareidi parties because of its greater respect for the religious status quo, in contrast to the secular left associated with influential sectors of Israel’s academic and judicial establishments.

The End of an Era

Gafni’s final years in the Knesset unfolded against the backdrop of the bitter battle over the draft law, an issue that has deeply divided Israeli society and posed an existential challenge to the yeshiva world.

High Court rulings, the freezing of government funding and sanctions directed at yeshiva students eventually led to a dramatic development in July 2025. At the instruction of the leaders of the Lithuanian chareidi community, Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Degel HaTorah withdrew from the governing coalition, bringing Gafni’s latest tenure as chairman of the Finance Committee to an end.

Gafni and his longtime colleague Uri Maklev subsequently moved away from the front line of parliamentary leadership, with MK Yaakov Asher expected to assume the leading role in representing Degel HaTorah in the Knesset.

Yet Gafni’s departure from the Knesset after nearly 40 years of public service did not mark the end of his involvement in Degel HaTorah.

Despite his retirement from parliamentary life, Rav Dov Landau asked Gafni to continue leading Degel HaTorah’s national movement, reflecting the appreciation within the party’s Torah leadership for his decades of devotion to the Torah world.

Moshe Gafni thus closes one of the longest and most consequential chapters in modern chareidi political history. From a young avreich and communal activist in Ofakim to the chairman sitting at the center of Israel’s national budget process, his political career was defined by a combination of social activism, parliamentary maneuvering and, above all, his conception of himself as a shaliach carrying out the directives of the Gedolei Torah.

{Matzav.com}